NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. -- The Trine men's basketball team picked up an 84-77 non-conference victory over Manchester Wednesday night at Stauffer-Wolfe Arena.
The Thunder never trailed in the second half and led for all but a 2:32 stretch of action on the night. Will Dixon (Indianapolis, Ind. / Zionsville) paced four Thunder in double-figures with 31 points on an efficient 12-of-20 effort from the floor. The performance marked the second time the senior has topped the 30-point mark against the Spartans in his career. Dixon needs seven points to become the 18th player in team history with 1,400 or more points in his career. He added four rebounds and dished out four assists. Dixon is averaging 24.8 points per game on 56 percent shooting through four games.
Langston Johnson (Elkhart, Ind. / Elkhart Central) provided an important scoring spark with a career-high 21 points. The freshman heated up from the perimeter early, knocking down his first five attempts from long range and 6-of-7 overall. Johnson's 85.7 percent shooting from three-point range was tied for the second-best percentage in a game in team history with a minimum of six made threes.
Ellis Cummings (Ottawa Hills, Ohio / Ottawa Hills) added his second career double-double. The junior scored 12 points and added 11 rebounds. He also blocked three shots. Kyle Dodson(Centerville, Ohio / Centerville) also reached double-figures with 11 points. The win improved Trine's record to 3-1 on the year.
Adrian Johnson paced Manchester with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. Kenny Doss came off the bench to add 15 points and seven rebounds. The Spartan bench contributed 42 points to the effort in the loss. Manchester fell to 0-3 on the season.
The Thunder came out firing on all cylinders to open an 11-3 lead less than three minutes into the contest. Langston Johnson's hot start powered Trine's offensive efforts through the first seven minutes. The freshman connected on all five of his attempts from three-point range to account for 15 straight Thunder points as Trine built a 20-13 lead with 13:15 to play.
The Spartans fought back to take a 27-25 lead at the 8:05 mark, but a 10-1 Trine run helped the Thunder seize control right back. Dixon accounted for half the points in the run. A Tyler Billups three stopped the Trine surge and cut the halftime Thunder lead to 35-31. Trine's defense held Manchester without a field goal for a span of 8:04 while the Thunder regained the lead.
After a 10-2 run opened up a 10-point lead in the early stages of the second half, Trine would maintain a multiple-possession lead until an Adrian Johnson layup cut the score to 66-64 with 5:30 to play. An old-fashioned three-point play by Dixon and a dunk by Cummings pushed the lead back to seven. The Spartans got no closer than five points the rest of the way.
Trine returns to action Saturday, Nov. 26 with a road contest at undefeated Baldwin Wallace. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m.